This is Forty
by ZoyaLadoga
Summary: Buffy Summers hates her birthdays for good reasons, but this time Faith got her tickets to the Universal studios as a present. There are a lot of cosplayers at the fake Hogwarts there, but this one man with a lighting scar is not playing Harry Potter...


This is forty

Well, 39 actually, but who's counting? Buffy was celebrating her birthday in the safest way possible – which was also the best way – alone, with an entertaining movie.

On TV screen in front of her there were intensely familiar streets of San Francisco, and a car chase with cars – and heroes - constantly changing their sizes.

"Hi, B!" - The door opened and closed. "Got the cake! Wanna help me finish it?" Faith dropped the cake on the table, then dropped herself beside Buffy.

"Wait, it's almost over,"

"What is it?"

"_Ant-Man and the Wasp_."

"Again?"

"It's my birthday. What do you think of Paul Rudd?"

"A. Human. B. Handsome." And on Buffy's inquiring glance, added with a shrug, "I've checked. The human part, for the good of humanity. I mean, he is what, fifty now? He looks amazing."

"When did we start lusting at the 50 year olds?"

"Me? When Brad Pitt turned that page. But for you that's basically still underage, right?"

"Not funny. Spike doesn't look a moment over twenty-something, and behaves like a teenager. Some times. Angel is even worse."

"How old was Giles, when you moved to Sunnydale?"

"Younger. Oh, gods, we'll be Giles' age soon!"

"That's what scares you?"

"Let me just enjoy the movie in peace."

"Sure, girlfriend." Faith made herself comfortable in the armchair with cognac and food and continued. "Heard from Spike lately?"

Buffy waved her hand absentmindedly. "He is, you know… fighting some evil at some place that's not California with no cell connection. Like California is too tame and not evil enough to fight. I am not worried, he is like that cat who always comes back."

"And the rest of the Scoobies are not coming to make noise and such?"

"They know that I hate my birthdays. The less noise anyone makes the better."

"Yes, that's why I am here."

"You live here, we are roommates, remember?"

"True, but I could always leave you alone."

Buffy regarded Faith with deep suspicion. She knew Faith was capable of leaving her alone, but she has never done it, unless she just wanted to be somewhere else.

"Anyways, I am not just here to annoy you. I came bearing gifts." Faith pulled her cellphone out and waved it enticingly.

Buffy frowned. "You are giving me your old phone?"

"No! it's tickets to the Universal Studios! You are me are going to Hogwarts, Jurassic park and whatever else they have there! We are flying tomorrow night – you'll have the whole day to add shine to your hair, pack your stakes and shoes, and add fresh vanilla scent to your stuff."

"Well, that sounds not too horrible."

"We are going on adventure, B! Good clean fun, am I right?" 

Strangely, it turned out that Faith really was right.

The flight was on time, the hotel was pleasant, and - Buffy suspected - rather expensive. She preferred not to go into Faith's finances, as they had all generally solved their financial troubles with combination of old Watcher Council money, Willow's skills with magic and computers and demonic accounting. Saving the world on daily basis cost money, and some of those money should be going to rejuvenation activity.

The day at Universal Studios was also pretty good. They skipped the lines and allowed themselves to enjoy the silliness of rides without even once remembering that they were old and probably a little bit wise. The demonic activity was at all time low, and Buffy wondered idly was it because of off-season or did they really made a difference.

They bought the magic wands at the Fake Hogsmeade wand shop and amused themselves by walking through and trying out the spells, bought and ate some crappy food, then overloaded on chocolate frogs and all kinds of candies, bought presents for eveyone.

"Do you think Willow will kill us for buying her a Slytherin scarf?" Faith asked poking at the merchandise.

"If she does, she deserves it. But she strikes me as a Ravenclaw, I think. Of course SHE thinks she is a Gryffindor." Buffy giggled.

"Nobody wants to be a Hufflepuff… I think I would be a good Hufflepuff."

"You?"

"Sure. I have no ambition, passion for knowledge, or desire to run headfirst into danger. I just want to have fun."

"Hmm."

"That was fun, thank you Faith." Buffy said as they moved again through little fake Hogsmeade towards the exit.

"You are welcome. Not bad for your boring birthday, eh?"

"Oh, we forgot to try butterbeer!" Buffy noticed the stand and soon enough stood with a plastic glass of frothy drink looking for a place to sit. Finally she noticed a bench and went there. On the bench there already sat a man cradling his own glass. He looked about the same age as them, but his mop of black hair was generously touched by gray. He wore round glasses and weird clothes, and there was an obvious lighting scar on his forehead.

Of course.

"Your Harry Potter costume is pretty good. But the scar is on the wrong side!" Buffy couldn't stop herself.

The man blinked in confusion and touched his scar with what was obviously a habitual gesture.

"Aren't you too old to be Harry Potter?" Faith offered unhelpfully.

At that the man laughed. It was a tired, bitter laugh. "I think you might be right on this one. Damn, butterbeer here is horrible." He took his wand out, pointed at his glass, watched the drink there change, and drank it fast."

Wait. Buffy had a bad tingling sensation in her body. "You ARE the Harry Potter."

"Well, yes. And you are?"

Buffy flashed her sunniest grin. "I am Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The Chosen one."

"And I am Faith, the Other one. Also a vampire Slayer."

Harry Potter frowned. "Are there a lot of vampires around here? Actual vampires?"

"Sure. All kinds of demons. But not that many, theses times. But how come you are here? I thought you're just a book."

"And movies!"

"Pardon me, what do you mean 'I am a book'?"

"A character in the books we all read."

"I haven't, but I saw the movies." Nobody would have suspected Faith in reading books, but she still wanted to make the point clear.

"Well, I have no idea who you are, and where I am now, but I am not a book. I am a person and in need of serious thinking."

"And so say we all."

"I know just the place." Faith indeed knew all the places.

Soon enough the three of them were in a cafe, eating cheap pizza, trying to figure out the situation. There were parallel universes. They knew that already. It was just incredible that one of those was the Universe of Harry Potter. And everything they read in books (watched in movies) was true. More or less.

They tried to figure out the differences. Harry had no idea about vampires slayers. So there was no another Buffy there, nor books about her.

"Do you have shrimp?"

"Sure, why?"

"What about pizza?"

"Of course we have pizza! Why wouldn't we?

"What do you watch on tv?"

"On telly? Emm...Doctor Who? I mean, wizards have their own stuff, and I haven't seen much with the Dursleys. But I know of Doctor Who. You have it here?"

"Yes, we do. I don't watch it though. What about Star Wars? Or Marvel movies?"

"Yes, we have those. Ginny loves Thor and Loki's adventures. And all the Peggy Carter movies. I loved the ones set in space. Even read all the muggle comics. Everybody else in the family don't see the point in non-moving pictures..." He shook his head. "Time for another drink."

"Don't worry, we'll figure out what happened and how to get you back. It's not the end of the world!" Faith slapped his back.

"Hopefully!" Buffy rolled her eyes at Faith. "But even if it is the end of the world we'll figure it out! Not the first time, not even the… I mean, there is no point in counting. Weird shit always happens, and we always find a way to deal with it."

"Weird shit happens to me all the time. Why couldn't it happen to Hermione? She would already be home."

"Maybe that's exactly what happens? When something happens to Hermione, she immediately figure out what to do with it, and nobody notices the problem because it's already been solved?"

Harry looked at them as if it was a novel and enticing idea. Honestly, Buffy herself wouldn't mind it ever happens like this with her. She wasn't bad about solving problems, but they tended to grow noticeably bad before she was successful.

"So how did it happen?"

"After a day at the Ministry, I went for a walk, to stretch, to think… Then found a dark alley and tried to apparate to Hogsmeade, and ended up here."

"In our fake Hogsmeade?"

"Yes, with your fake butterbeer."

"I thought it was pretty nice."

"That's because you haven't tried the real one."

"Did you notice anything unusual in London or during the spell?"

"No, I didn't. But I keep thinking back – there should be something I missed…"

They ordered another pizza – Hawaiian one this time. It didn't help to think, but Buffy believed that thinking works much better in the morning, anyway.

"I knew that celebrating my birthday was a bad idea."

"Is it your birthday?"

"It was two days ago. 39 years. Crazy, isn't it?"

"I am 39, too. Will be 40 in half a year."

"Oh, I remember! It's like, July 31, right?"

"Yes. It's crazy you know so much about me, and I know nothing about you."

"Well, check the name when you get back. Maybe there is a book about me in your world."

"Forty… It feels impossible to think about. I do feel too old to be Harry Potter occasionally. Most people still think I am a boy who lived. I haven't felt like a boy who lived since… since I died, I guess. And lost so many friends..."

"I've died twice." Buffy told into her glass.

"Really?"

"Well, the first time was the easy one. My friend revived me with a CPR. The second was real. There was a funeral and a grave, and I – in a coffin six feet under. Had to dig my way out when my friends decided to bring me back."

"You have great friends!"

"Yes. You too." Buffy smiled, then grew pensive. "I try to be chipper about it, but it was horrible. Took me a long time to actually feel alive. Though it was still better than the death of my mom."

"You've lost your parents, too?"

"Well, my father is probably still alive, somewhere. Haven't seen him in years and don't plan to. But mom… I know what happened to yours, but I... just found my mom dead one day, for human, medical reasons… I always felt connection with Luna in your books because of it..."

"I've lost a lot of people close to me."

Buffy nodded. "Saving world sucks."

"Tell me about it." Harry silently looked into nowhere. Then turned to Faith and asked, "What about you?"

"Complicated. Don't remember my parents, never missed them. Trying not to get too attached to people in general."

Harry looked at them with a grin. "Any kids, family?"

"I have a younger sister that I raised after mom was gone. And nieces, by now. And a dozen of new slayers that I train at any given moment."

Faith rolled her eyes in mock terror. "Nope. Training the girls is enough for me."

"But I do have a family – beside my sister, it's all my old friends that were with me from the beginning."

"I know what you mean."

"But you have kids, right?"

"Oh, yes." Harry checked his pockets and produced a regular-looking smartphone. "Here they are: James, Lily and Albus"

Buffy dutifully looked at videos of the kids and other people, then stopped. "Wait, you have a smartphone? Isn't it, like, the muggle technology?"

"I happen to like muggle technology and find it very useful, especially since in the past twenty years it got so close to magic. Of course, folks at muggle studies now are coming up now with very interesting ways to enhance it with actual magic, like this phone."

"Can you call home now from here?"

"No, unfortunately. It was the first thing I tried." Harry started to put phone away.

"Wait, we almost forgot to make selfies!" Faith took out her phone and proceeded to make them smile for the camera.

After all the pictures were done, Buffy tried to call on Harry's phone. Surprisingly, it worked.

"Great. Now you have my phone – in case you meet vampires and won't know what to do with them. Or there is an apocalypse coming, and you need a second opinion. But we know that your phone works in our universe, but not between the Universes."

"Vampires don't like daylight, right?"

"Right. Also, cross, stake and holy water. I've met non-Christian vampires, they just got annoyed by the cross though. Wood and sunlight works wonders against everyone."

"Good to know. I tend to always have wood with me that I can make sunlight with." He took out his wand and waved it. "Haven't used it against vampires yet. And honestly, I hope I never have to."

"What do you do, these days? More world saving?"

"I guess. World saving just got on a smaller scale. No big battles, no war. Little everyday things that get under your skin. Sometimes I wish for a big battle where everything is clear, and you know what you have to do, even when you don't know how."

Buffy nodded. "Even when you know you have to die to win. It's easier that growing old, and realizing that you look ridiculous to people who could be your kids…"

"Or who are your kids… mine grew up with tales about our heroic exploits. And we wanted them to grow up in a save, happy world. But I sometimes think they resent us for not letting them be heroes, too."

"They are going to be, though. Eventually they will have their own battles to fight."

"Is it why you never had kids?"

"No. I just never expected to live that long. I've been the longest living Slayer for fifteen years now… Didn't want to bring a kid into this world and have them see me dead."

"That's tough."

"Yeah, I got used to it, I think. I get cranky when another apocalypse rolls out, but in some ways it's a relief – because then I feel… on familiar ground, you know? Like finally I can swoop in, show everyone how it's done and feel..."

"Relevant." Harry Potter finished for her. "I know the feeling. Our war is long over, and I bloody happy we don't have anything like that anymore. But… To feel that the main thing in my life was accomplished when I was eighteen, and nothing I've ever done since comes even closer…"

Buffy nodded in sympathy.

"You guys are so cute together!" Faith laid down on the counter and propped her cheek. "Stop with the mop fest. Let's go, order more pizza to our hotel room and sit there."

"And a cup of tea would be nice."

"Finally! I am trying to fill my British bingo, and you spent the whole night without mentioning tea once. I started to get worried."

They slowly got up and asked for the bill.

"Wait! I want to check whether my cards will work here. Call it an experiment."

"How did you get that butterbeer?"

"Paid with a galleon enchanted to look like local money. Probably overpaid, of course."

Harry Potter offered two cards to the waiter. One, from a regular UK bank, was declined. The other one, obviously from Gringotts, was accepted."

"Heh. I knew they are sneaky bastards – nothing can stop financial currents."

They got a ride to the hotel. Harry tried to get his own room, but Faith and Buffy stopped him.

"Don't be daft. You are our guest."

"And don't worry about damaging our reputation. It can only get better at this point." Faith winked at him.

"We have a huge suite. You'll take the sofa, and we each have our own bed."

"I just didn't want to make you uncomfortable."

They ordered tea in the room and continued talking well past the midnight.

"I've been thinking – the magic works here for you the same way it works back home, right?" Buffy asked.

"More or less. I tried only simplest spells."

"And the magic bank card worked here, but cellphone doesn't."

"yes."

"I have a feeling that it is a big clue, but cannot figure out what it is. Maybe we just need to try it all over in the morning."

"Maybe you will wake up at home and think it was all a dream!"

"Yes, we'll need proof." Buffy took her phone, found her selfie with Harry Potter they made earlier and sent them to Harry's number, and then to Willow.

They talked some more, but soon enough everyone was too sleepy to keep eyes open and say words, and so they parted for the night.

First thing Buffy saw upon waking up was Willow's face.

"When did you mastered Giles' "I am not angry I am disappointed" expression, and why are you pointing it at me?" She asked in a way of greeting.

"Because you've met AN ACTUAL HARRY POTTER and didn't think to tell me."

"I obviously did, how else would you end up here. By the way, how did you end up here?"

"I teleported as soon as I got your picture message and figure out its meaning."

"Oh."

"So, care to tell me what happened?"

"My birthday happened." Buffy shrugged and got out of the bed. It was 8 am. Faith was still asleep, Willow's roar not an impediment to her slumber. "Can you order breakfast? A lot of it? And then we'll talk. Is Harry still here?"

"I assume he is the guy sleeping on the couch, right?"

When Buffy emerged from the shower, everyone was awake, and the abundant breakfast awaited them.

"Willow, this is Harry Potter. Harry Potter, this is Willow Rosenberg, the most powerful witch I know about, in our world."

While Willow and Harry talked about magic, and Faith wolfed down sausages and eggs, Buffy sipped her coffee and tried to think. Something, something...

"Maybe it's a Dorothy situation?"

Willow turned her head "Like, click your heels? It never works. " She turned back to Harry, "Your world has "The Wizard of Oz", right?"

"Yes, and no, it doesn't work in real life."

"I didn't mean literally. But maybe you try to apparate again, thinking about home really hard, and you get there?"

"I did it to begin with. But I can always try again."

"Think not about place, but about people." Buffy had little hope that it may be solved so fast, but it's better to try the easy way before the hard way.

"If it'll work, I need to figure out how I got here, since I wasn't thinking about any of you."

"My birthday is always mess, but this year it was a very good mess. I am actually grateful. To Faith, to my friends, to you, to whatever weird magic that brought you here."

"Well, I hope I'll get home that easily as you suggest, but it was good to meet you all. And well, you are all invited to my birthday if you can make it." Harry Potter grinned, and for a moment he did look like a boy who lived. Then he hugged Buffy, Faith and Willow, took a deep breath and disappeared.

"Do you think he is home?" Faith asked

"You can try to send him a message."

Willow stood in a rapt amazement. "Do you guys realize what this means?! There is a way, a path between our universes… I am going to Hogwarts!"


End file.
